Phantom is said to have been one of the original line of Confederate Government steamers operated between Wilmington, N.C., and Bermuda by the Ordnance Bureau, CSA (cf. Cornubia).
She was a "very handsome," steel-plated, screw steamer of 170 horsepower, constructed at Liverpool late in 1862 as "Hull No. 167" by a "G. Hillman"; drawings of her lines, captioned in German, do not specify the builder's yard. She seems to have left Liverpool early in April 1863.
Chased ashore by USS Connecticut, she was lost on her third run into the Cape Fear, 23 September 1863, near Rich or New Topsail Inlet, above Fort Fisher, and fired by her crew, who made good their escape in the lifeboats. Boats from Connecticut could not get near her, "hard and fast * * * and done for," to put out the fires or get her off, although one landsman in a boat making the attempt was killed by Confederate sharpshooters behind the dunes.
